Living Building Chronicle

A fitting tenant has first dibs on space in the Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design — even though the building is more than a year away from completion. The Georgia Tech Global Change Program is itself only a few weeks old.

While their contribution to energy performance gets the most scrutiny from architects and engineers, the impact of windows on indoor environmental quality often has a more tangible impact on a building’s occupants.

A common theme emerged in two sessions at Greeprints 2018: Net zero energy is perfectly feasible but — if we’re to meaningfully combat climate change — the built-environment community needs to adopt net zero more quickly.

In the spirit of learning from others’ mistakes, BuildingGreen’s Paula Melton and Peter Yost share seven tales of problems that run the gamut from uneven heating and cooling, to light sensors run amuck, to customized ductwork design gone wild.

Southface’s 2018 Greenprints Conference kicks off tonight with a 20th anniversary dinner at Midtown Atlanta’s Rhodes Hall, followed by two days of speakers and workers on sustainable building and development at the Georgia State University Student Center downtown.

The World Green Building Council’s “Advancing Net Zero” has an ambitious goal: that 100 percent of all buildings operate at net zero by 2050. WGBC calls for better tracking and verification of building performance, and not surprisingly suggests that buildings meet net zero by balancing reduced energy demand with renewable sources.

The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design is about to collect another award. Southface announced today that the project at Georgia Tech will be recognized next week as one of four 2018 Fulcrum Award winners.

Zero energy commercial buildings appear to be accelerating their steep ascent in North America.

Sixty-seven of them have now been “verified” in the U.S. and Canada, according to a recent report from the New Buildings Institute. Another 415 are underway or are being evaluated for net-zero performance, according to the report, the 2018 Getting to Zero Status Update.

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See for yourself how construction is progressing at the Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design. Our friends at Georgia Tech are now booking free tours. Individuals and groups may reserve by clicking here.